tyrannosaurus

British

/ tɪˌrænəˈsɔːrəs, tɪˈrænəˌsɔː /

noun

any large carnivorous bipedal dinosaur of the genus Tyrannosaurus, common in North America in upper Jurassic and Cretaceous times: suborder Theropoda (theropods)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of tyrannosaurus

C19: from New Latin, from Greek turannos _tyrant + sauros lizard

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

My research team and I identified preserved blood vessels in a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, and our findings were recently published in Scientific Reports.

From Science Daily • Apr. 26, 2026

"At the time, the prevailing consensus was that the Nanotyrannus holotype skull represented an immature Tyrannosaurus rex, and was not a separate species," said Griffin, assistant professor of geosciences at Princeton.

From Science Daily • Apr. 15, 2026

Choudhury, whose favorite genus is the classic Tyrannosaurus, says he’d love to see more obscure prehistoric species.

From Salon • Apr. 12, 2026

"The composite growth curve provides a much more realistic view of how Tyrannosaurus grew and how much they varied in size."

From Science Daily • Mar. 5, 2026

I’m not even sure why Crenshaw was a cat, and not a dog or an alligator or a Tyrannosaurus rex with three heads.

From "Crenshaw" by Katherine Applegate

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023